WASHINGTON POST: Donald Trump announces naval blockade of Iran after Islamabad talks yield no deal

After marathon overnight talks between the United States and Iran failed to yield a deal on US terms, President Donald Trump on Sunday announced the imposition of a naval blockade on Iran — a move that could derail a tenuous two-week ceasefire reached just five days ago.

“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social, his social media site. The president also said he had instructed the Navy to interdict all ships that have paid a toll to Iran for traversing the strait, calling Tehran’s expanded control of the waterway “EXTORTION”.

The focus of the US blockade will be to interdict any ships entering or departing Iranian ports or coastal areas - in effect to intercept any vessels paying Iran a toll to pass.

It will go into effect as of 10am Eastern on Monday, US Central Command said in a post to social media late Sunday.

The blockade “will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas,” Central Command said, but “will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports”.

A US official said that the US and Iran failed to reach agreements on several US demands, including that Iran end all uranium enrichment and allow the US to retrieve its highly enriched uranium; the dismantling of all major nuclear enrichment facilities; accepting a broader de-escalation framework involving regional powers; ending funding for terrorist proxies including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis; and fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz with no tolls for passage. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

In an interview Sunday morning with Fox News, Mr Trump said he expected “numerous” countries to help with the blockade, which he compared to the US operation to block the flow of oil ships out of Venezuela earlier this year, saying it would be “very similar to that but at a higher level”.

The blockade in the short term, at least, might risk worsening a war-driven global energy crisis by halting all cargo traffic through the strait, and Mr Trump acknowledged that price of oil and gas may continue to increase in the US for some time. While Iran would potentially suffer the most economically, the move may come as a blow to the rest of the world as well, especially nations in Asia, which rely heavily on oil and gas, petrochemicals, and other essentials shipped from the Persian Gulf.

The tight geography could also make naval operations in the Gulf perilous. US ships could be vulnerable to attacks by small craft, as well as drones and missiles. Mr Trump in his post said other countries would be involved in imposing the blockade but offered no specifics.

Despite failing to reach a deal, Mr Trump expressed optimism that one would still be struck with Iran and reiterated Vice President JD Vance’s earlier remarks that the main sticking point was disagreement over Iran’s nuclear program.

“It was a good meeting yesterday, really, a good meeting, except for one problem — and it’s 95 percent,” Mr Trump told Fox. “They want to have nuclear weapons. It’s not going to happen.”

Asked whether he would “further destruct Iran” if the nation does not give up its nuclear program, Mr Trump said, “Yeah, I will,” saying that strikes on electricity plants, missile production facilities, bridges and even desalinisation plants were possible, though on the latter possibility he said he would “hate” to target the country’s water.

“I predict they come back and they give us everything we want,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump’s announcement of the blockade came just hours after the talks concluded and a statement by Mr Vance, the top US negotiator, indicating that the President still expected Tehran to surrender. WhenMr Vance briefed reporters shortly before leaving the Pakistani capital Sunday, he suggested the US remained open to a diplomatic solution, but only if Iran accepts a proposal that he described as “our final and best offer.”

“We just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms. I think that we were quite flexible,” Mr Vance told reporters around 6.30am local time. He did not respond to shouted questions about whether fighting would resume in what had become an increasingly unpopular and economically damaging war for Mr Trump and the world.

Before Mr Trump’s announcement of the blockade, Iranian officials also indicated they remain open to diplomacy, but their top negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, suggested that Washington must make the next move. “America has understood our logic and principles, and now it’s time for it to decide whether it can earn our trust or not,” Mr Ghalibaf posted on X.

Iranian negotiators “raised forward-looking initiatives,” he said, “but the opposing side ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation”.

After more than 20 hours of the highest-level face-to-face engagement between Iranian and US officials in decades, it was unclear if the two sides would be able to bridge the expansive gaps in their positions before the ceasefire expires in 10 days, or if Mr Trump’s blockade would force Iran to offer concessions or, perhaps, the opposite and reignite hostilities.

In the blockade directed by Mr Trump, instead of having Navy ships escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz — a dangerous operation that retired Navy Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery said could put additional service members’ lives at risk — the US will instead be waiting to board and potentially seize any vessels that pay Iran’s toll, essentially closing the strait off completely. Montgomery said that would be less risky for the US and far costlier to Iran. But to do that, “you are going to need a lot of destroyers,” said Rear Admiral Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies. “You are going to need a lot of boarding, search and seizure teams.”

Some of the ships willing to pay the toll for passage are probably part of the shadow fleet of vessels that have faced previous sanctions, or are not in compliance with environmental or seaworthiness standards that could sideline their vessels after they’re boarded — and the risk of losing their ships to seizure by the US may not be worth the passage, Montgomery said.

“Even if he (Mr Trump) was shooting from the hip here, it was a pretty good shot,” Montgomery said. “I think Iranians will feel the pinch for this.” It still likely won’t be enough to get Iran to return to negotiations, he said. “He’s probably going to have to do strikes on their nuclear program, things like that, to get them to the table,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr Trump foreshadowed his plan for naval blockade, by sharing an article on social media headlined “The Trump card the president holds if Iran won’t bend: a naval blockade.” The article, from the website Just the News, suggested Mr Trump would replicate his naval blockade of Venezuela, which preceded the US military operation to seize the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Control of the Strait of Hormuz emerged as one of the most important issues in contention during the talks in Pakistan. Negotiators also discussed the future of Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s demand that the US unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets, according to a Pakistani official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive closed-door discussions.

Since the outbreak of war, Iran has effectively shut the strait, a narrow passageway that is vital to global energy supplies, a move that has wreaked havoc on global energy markets. Tehran mined parts of the strait, required tankers to request permission to pass and began collecting tolls, a setup Iranian officials have been pushing to make permanent.

Mr Trump previously said after the conclusion of conflict in the area, the strait would reopen “naturally.” But Iran has refused to back down. A blockade, at least initially, would mean no one will be able to use the strait.

Mr Trump has previously threatened the unspecified devastation of Iran, posting on Truth Social: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that ‌to ⁠happen, but it probably will.” The White House later clarified that the President was not considering the use of nuclear weapons but did not explain what he meant by his threat against the nation of more than 90 million people, with a history tracing back more than 6000 years.

Before the blockade announcement, the ceasefire appeared to be holding in the Middle East, with no reported US or Israeli attacks against Iran and no Iranian strikes on Israel or Persian Gulf states. But with 10 days to go in the ceasefire, time appeared to be on Iran’s side. Despite the killing early on of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other high-level assassinations, the country’s hard-line government remains intact, and its security apparatus withstood nearly six weeks of bombing.

After the talks ended Sunday, Pakistan pledged continued support for a diplomatic resolution to the war.

“It is imperative that both parties continue to uphold their commitments to ceasefire,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a video statement shortly after Mr Vance departed Sunday morning. “Pakistan will continue to play its role to facilitate engagement and dialogue,” he said, between Iran and the United States “in the days to come.”

In addition to the Strait of Hormuz, the talks in Islamabad also addressed Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s demand for compensation for war damages.

Negotiators discussed the future of some 900 pounds (408kg) of highly enriched uranium in Iran. Iran’s nuclear capabilities were one of the Trump administration’s central justifications for going to war, and after the ceasefire declaration, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested the material would not stay inside Iran.

“Right now, it’s buried, and we’re watching it,” Mr Hegseth told reporters last week. Iran can either “give it to us voluntarily,” he said, or US forces would remove it, though it was unclear how they could do so without undertaking highly dangerous ground operations inside the country.

Iran is also demanding that the US unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets so the money can be paid as reparations. Another proposal under discussion was to have the toll money Iran collects from the Strait of Hormuz serve as reparations for the damage caused by the US-Israeli bombing campaign.

Iranian leaders have said the payment of war-related damages would be a key element of a deal, providing some disincentive for the US to attack again. The demand was included in Tehran’s 10-point plan to end the war that state-run media released last week.

Some Israelis, including government officials, have objected to the ceasefire, saying more needs to be done to permanently address the threats to Israel and the region posed by Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Tara Copp contributed to this report.

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